


Helping Hand

by ani_bester



Category: All Winners (Marvel), Invaders (Marvel), Marvel 616
Genre: 1950s, Angst, Brainwashing, Gen, Ghosts, Irony, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-01
Updated: 2013-02-01
Packaged: 2017-11-27 18:25:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/665071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ani_bester/pseuds/ani_bester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toro needs the KGB file on himself to be fully deprogrammed and after loosing hope, gets it from a ghost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Helping Hand

**Author's Note:**

> comment_fic :)

Toro sat alone at his small table in the crowded English pub. He’d tuned out the ruckus around him and put all his attention into digging a hole into the wooden table with the prong of his fork. It looked crazy, he figured, but it beat thinking. 

"Toro?"

Toro jumped slightly and then looked up at Jim with irritation he couldn't suppress. Sometimes Jim didn't know when to leave a fellow alone.

"What?" Toro snapped.

"I was just saying MI6 ruled Dr. Kryuchkov's death natural."

"Bullshit." Toro muttered.

Jim sat down into the seat next to Toro and Toro wished he’s thought to remove the chair before Jim got here. Jim reached out and tried to put his hand on Toro’s shoulder, but Toro shrugged away from the touch.  
Jim frowned, then put his hands in his lap. “I'm sure there are other people who can help you lad."

"Oh, I'm sure." Toro snarled. "People who have intimate knowledge of whatever was done to me are just lined up to defect from the MGB, or KGB, or whatever the hell it calls itself now." Toro took a long drink of his beer before looking at Jim again. "In the mean time, I'll just keep signing up for the communist party and you'll just have to keep watching me to make sure I don't sudden relapse brainwashing and go all Manchurian Candidate on you. Wonderful." Toro slammed his fork into the table with enough force to embed it there and draw attention. 

"Toro-"

Toro stood so fast he knocked his beer over onto Jim. Without apologizing, he ran out the door, ignoring Jim's calls for him to wait. Toro lit up and flew into the sky. He knew the flaming streak would be easy for Jim to follow, but he needed the freedom of the sky.

 

Hours later he found himself on a rooftop staring out at London. He sat alone for a while before he heard a noise behind him.  
"Jim-“ Toro began. He felt a lump in his throat and didn’t know if he was going to shout or cry.

He did neither, because it wasn't Jim.

Standing by one of the chimneys was a brown eyed brown haired figure that was so familiar the sight stopped Toro cold. 

"You-?" he whispered.

As if speaking had broken some kind of spell, Bucky disappeared, jumping from the edge of the roof in a crazy jump only he would dare make. 

The movement broke Toro's trance and with a shout he ran to the edge just in time to see something dodge around a corner. Flaming on, he gave chase through the dark alley ways.

He lost Bucky more than once, but each time, Bucky would reappear and pause long enough to allow Toro to catch up, than run ahead.

Finally, in a dark abandoned spot, Bucky stopped. Standing perfectly still, it pointed to the brick wall.

"Bucky," Toro whispered, "Buck is that you?"

Bucky said nothing he just pointed again.

"Are you a ghost."

Bucky looked at him and then his expression became so cold he almost looked like another person. Without a word, Bucky ran into the shadow. 

"Bucky," Toro yelled, but when he rounded the corner, he saw nothing. He waited for over an hour, but Bucky never came back. Assuming he’d ever been there at all. 

Fighting back tears, Toro went to the spot Bucky had pointed to.  
“It’s a wall,” he muttered, but as looked closer, he saw a loose brick. Sliding it out as though it might be a bomb, Toro uncovered a hidden compartment. Stuffed deep inside was a file folder with his name on it.

Toro opened it with shaking hands. The writing was in Russian, but the photographs of himself, and the little bit he could translate were all he needed to in order to understand what this was.

The file Kryuchkov had promised him, everything that had been done to him by the Russians, every trigger word, and conditioning was in his hands now. Bucky had led him to it.

Toro looked in the direction Bucky had disappeared. .

"Thank you," he tried to say, but it came out as a sob.


End file.
